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9/11The Mystery of a Hansom Cab
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“The following report appeared in the Argus newspaper of Saturday, the 28th July, 18--
“Truth is said to be stranger than fiction, and certainly the extraordinary murder which took place in Melbourne on Thursday night, or rather Friday morning, goes a long way towards verifying this saying. A crime has been committed by an unknown assassin, within a short distance of the principal streets of this great city, and is surrounded by an inpenetrable mystery. …
“On the twenty-seventh day of July, at the hour of twenty minutes to two o'clock in the morning, a hansom cab drove up to the police station in Grey Street, St. Kilda, and the driver made the startling statement that his cab contained the body of a man who he had reason to believe had been murdered….” (Excerpt from the first chapter.)
NOTE: The preface of this work mentions the culprit of the "whodunit" - which may spoil the project for some listeners. Be advised to skip the preface or listen to it at the end if you'd like to be surprised by the outcome of the story.
For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording.
Download M4B (211MB)
“Truth is said to be stranger than fiction, and certainly the extraordinary murder which took place in Melbourne on Thursday night, or rather Friday morning, goes a long way towards verifying this saying. A crime has been committed by an unknown assassin, within a short distance of the principal streets of this great city, and is surrounded by an inpenetrable mystery. …
“On the twenty-seventh day of July, at the hour of twenty minutes to two o'clock in the morning, a hansom cab drove up to the police station in Grey Street, St. Kilda, and the driver made the startling statement that his cab contained the body of a man who he had reason to believe had been murdered….” (Excerpt from the first chapter.)
NOTE: The preface of this work mentions the culprit of the "whodunit" - which may spoil the project for some listeners. Be advised to skip the preface or listen to it at the end if you'd like to be surprised by the outcome of the story.
For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording.
Download M4B (211MB)
- Addeddate
- 2008-08-29 18:39:04
- Boxid
- OL100020208
- Call number
- 2424
- External-identifier
-
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![[Storj]](/images/storj-small.png "[Storj]")
- External_metadata_update
- 2019-04-15T18:32:25Z
- Identifier
- hansom_cab_sd_0808_librivox
- Ocr
- tesseract 5.0.0-beta-20210815
- Ocr_autonomous
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- Ocr_detected_lang
- en
- Ocr_detected_lang_conf
- 1.0000
- Ocr_detected_script
- Latin
- Ocr_detected_script_conf
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- Ocr_module_version
- 0.0.13
- Ocr_parameters
- -l eng+Latin
- Ppi
- 600
- Run time
- 7:41:50
- Taped by
- LibriVox
- Year
- 2008
comment
Reviews
(2)
Reviewer:
ListeninginChicago
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
August 3, 2009
Subject: Hume's first crime novel is easy to listen to
Subject: Hume's first crime novel is easy to listen to
From Wikipedia: Hume was born in England. At the age of three his father emigrated with his family to Dunedin, New Zealand. He studied law and was admitted
...
to the New Zealand bar in 1885. Shortly after graduation he left for Melbourne, Australia. He began writing plays, but found it impossible to persuade the managers of the Melbourne theatres to accept or even read them.
Finding that the novels of Émile Gaboriau were then very popular in Melbourne, he obtained and read a set of them and determined to write a novel of a similar kind. The result was the self-published novel The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886), which became a great success. He based his descriptions of low life on his knowledge of Little Bourke Street. It eventually became the top selling mystery novel of the Victorian era, John Sutherland calling it the "most sensationally popular crime and detective novel of the century."
Hume returned to England in 1888. He resided in London for few years and then he moved to the Essex countryside where he lived in Thundersley for thirty years, eventually producing over 100 novels and short stories. Hume was a capable writer of mystery stories, and may be looked upon as one of the precursors of the many writers of detective stories whose work was so popular in the twentieth century.
My comments: If the term "pop fiction" existed at the time, it would be apropos of this book. It's enjoyable and easy to read, it did catch me in the story and surprised me at the end. Great fiction, maybe not, but quite nice for a rainy Saturday.
This is a solo project by Sibella Denton. Sibella is a good reader - clear and easy to listen to. At times the reading is a bit quick, but that does not detract from the overall story or quality of the recording.
Finding that the novels of Émile Gaboriau were then very popular in Melbourne, he obtained and read a set of them and determined to write a novel of a similar kind. The result was the self-published novel The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886), which became a great success. He based his descriptions of low life on his knowledge of Little Bourke Street. It eventually became the top selling mystery novel of the Victorian era, John Sutherland calling it the "most sensationally popular crime and detective novel of the century."
Hume returned to England in 1888. He resided in London for few years and then he moved to the Essex countryside where he lived in Thundersley for thirty years, eventually producing over 100 novels and short stories. Hume was a capable writer of mystery stories, and may be looked upon as one of the precursors of the many writers of detective stories whose work was so popular in the twentieth century.
My comments: If the term "pop fiction" existed at the time, it would be apropos of this book. It's enjoyable and easy to read, it did catch me in the story and surprised me at the end. Great fiction, maybe not, but quite nice for a rainy Saturday.
This is a solo project by Sibella Denton. Sibella is a good reader - clear and easy to listen to. At times the reading is a bit quick, but that does not detract from the overall story or quality of the recording.
Reviewer:
trail_runnr
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
September 26, 2008
Subject: 5 Stars - No Question
Subject: 5 Stars - No Question
I listen daily to an audio book/stories etc. on my mp3 player.
Toward the end of this audio book I could not stop listening. There are so many twists ... and turns in The Mystery of the Hansom Cab and several sub plots that it kept me guessing. I won't give away any of the secrets, but I assure you I will listen to The Mystery of the Hansom Cab again.
5 Stars - No Question
Toward the end of this audio book I could not stop listening. There are so many twists ... and turns in The Mystery of the Hansom Cab and several sub plots that it kept me guessing. I won't give away any of the secrets, but I assure you I will listen to The Mystery of the Hansom Cab again.
5 Stars - No Question
There are 2 reviews for this item. .
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